HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight
by NYC the Penguin
Summary: A written parody of the popular HetaGame! The G8 weren't the only ones invited over to check out the 'famous' haunted mansion; America had asked the Baltics and Nordics to come along as well. Will they escape the mansion alive? Events run parallel to the original HetaOni, so if you know how the original went you should know how this one goes. Rated T for some violence later on.
1. The Mansion Where None Should Enter

**Moi! I'm back with more fandoms people! All my POM stories are on hiatus right now but I have a little something to show you guys if you're interested. Also, I brought a friend!**

**Iceland: Hi. Nice to meet you, I'm Iceland. I'll be in the author's notes to answer questions you might have.**

**So as the title suggests, this is kind of a parody of HetaOni. I loved the story so much I decided to write a version of it with the Baltics and Nordics. Liet and company need more love and it doesn't have to come from Russia. **

* * *

There is a deserted house in the mountains, three hours on foot from the venue of the world summit.

No one knows how long it has been there or who used to live in it.

Rumour has it that it was HAUNTED...

* * *

Four people gazed up at the desolate mansion.

It had a eerie, dank air to it. Paint was cracked and peeling off its walls, the windows were grimy and dusty and the door had several deep scratches on the front. The front yard, probably once beautiful and filled with lush greenery, was dull and overgrown with weeds and neglect.

"A-are you sure this is the one?" Lithuania stuttered, shivering in the cold breeze.

Estonia checked his watch. "It has to be. They did mention it would take three hours to get here from the meeting venue. That's how much time we took to walk here."

"Wow..." Latvia couldn't help saying that. "We actually found it... So America wasn't lying at all about the haunted house... Are we really going in there?"

Lithuania shuddered. "Oh God no..."

Poland giggled. "Come on, Liet! It's, like, just a house! What can it do, eat you?"

"Well, strange things tend to happen in old abandoned houses like this one..."

Heavy rainclouds begun to gather over the mansion. Thunder boomed and the breeze gradually grew into a gale.

"It's going to storm!" Estonia yelled over the wind. "Why don't we just go inside for some shelter? We'll leave after the storm blows over!"

* * *

"It's cleaner than I thought," Latvia commented.

Sure enough, the seemingly dilapidated house was immaculate on the inside. The polished wooden floorboards were unblemished and not a single common household pest was to be seen.

Lithuania toyed with his fingers nervously. "T-taip... A little too clean for a haunted house if you ask me..."

"Yeah, I can't find any sign of neglect anywhere," Estonia agreed, studying the walls.

Poland pouted. "Well, that just, like, made this totally not exciting anymore! Clean houses are, like, no fun-"

As if on cue, there was a shattering noise. Latvia squealed and Estonia quickly found the young Baltic clinging onto him.

Lithuania sighed. "You want excitement? You've got it. Go see what happened over there."

Poland took one look at the dark, empty corridor. "Nope!" he grinned sheepishly, shoving his 'friend' into the corridor. "You should totally go instead! It's, like, more exciting watching you!"

"Ugh, fine, Poland." He gave in. "I'll go see what broke. You guys stay here and wait for me, alright?"

Estonia nodded. "Watch your step."

"B-be careful, Lithuania!" Latvia added.

"I will!"

* * *

"It sure is dark in here," the Baltic muttered to himself as he started down the corridor towards the source of the noise. Outside, through the windows, thunder boomed and lightning flashed as rain battered the grimy glass, a constant reminder of where they had just intruded.

Soon enough, he found a wooden door. He tried the doorknob.

"It's locked," he realised, twisting and shaking the metal protrusion a few times for good measure. When he was fully convinced that it was shut tight, he carried on. "Funny, usually Poland would be calling for me to hurry up," he noted to nobody in particular, "I wonder if he got bored and left..."

The passageway gradually opened into a kitchen-like area, with several food storage cupboards, a counter, sink and racks of crockery. Lithuania looked down and saw a ceramic plate at his feet, splintered into several pieces of various sizes. He gingerly picked up a large piece of ceramic and scrutinised it.

"So this is what broke just now," he mused, sweeping the broken pieces into a pile before wrapping them up with a handkerchief. "I'll look for somewhere to throw them away."

* * *

By the time he returned to the main hall, the others were gone.

"They did leave," he muttered, a little irritated by his friends' apparent deserting of him, before a ear-splitting boom of thunder shook the mansion. He peered out of the nearest window and found rainwater still sliding down the glass in sheets.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to check outside," he decided, strolling towards the main entrance. Not knowing what to expect, he took the door handle and pushed it down.

It didn't budge.

He frowned. "Maybe I'm turning it the wrong way?" he wondered, twisting the handle in the opposite direction.

No luck. Lithuania was locked away inside the mansion. He gave up and headed down the opposite corridor. "Let's see if I can find another way out of this house..."

Then the footsteps sounded.

He froze immediately at the sound, which was a good choice of movement, because when his attention shifted upwards... he saw it.

The creature was vaguely humanoid, with a head, two arms and two legs. But the resemblance stopped there, as its head was large and bulbous, its skin was a sooty grey colour and it was completely naked.

Lithuania swiftly clamped his mouth shut before any sound could escape. He watched, frozen by sheer terror, as the thing disappeared into a small, dark room at the end of the corridor, not daring to even breathe until the door closed behind it. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he collapsed against the corridor walls, gasping.

"What- What was that?!" he breathed.

* * *

**If it was kind of short, sorry ^^; I still haven't worked out several details yet. For those who know HetaOni, you know what's going to happen next.**

**Iceland: At this rate, we're not going to appear in the main story for a while either...**

**Yes, I know that. I haven't even finished writing the first bit yet so updates are gonna be pretty erratic. Hopefully I'll be able to get all the main characters into HetaOni NB8 soon enough. Until then, just sit tight and keep hanging on to that cliff.**


	2. Would you like a drink?

**Hyvää Joulua, readers~ Thanks for your patience! Here's the second chapter for an early Christmas present. I hope you like it!**

**Iceland: You got one review. Thank you for liking this story, TotallyRandomAuthor; I don't want to escape that mansion and have others tell me watching paint dry could be more interesting.**

**Ice, you haven't even appeared in the story yet.**

**Iceland: I was just saying.**

**Right... Anyway, onwards with the story!**

* * *

The other doors on the first floor were all locked so Lithuania decided to climb the staircase up to the second floor.

"This one's locked too," he sighed, testing yet another doorknob. He cautiously tiptoed down the corridor, trembling over the possibility that he might be walking directly over the room he saw that... Thing... disappear into.

Two doors, on opposite sides of the corridor from each other, loomed out of the semi-darkness. One of them was left ajar. "Finally!" Lithuania breathed, stopping in front of it. He paused to make sure nobody - or nothing - was hiding behind it before pushing it fully open.

It opened into a tiny bedroom. One corner was occupied by a large wardrobe. A small bed leaned against a wall. A corner of the room was covered by a curtain. Lithuania strode over to the curtain and stared hard at it. It was quivering slightly.

"Should I open it?" he wondered to himself, "What if that Thing is..."

He pulled it aside anyway.

Almost instantly, the figure behind it wailed. "Ahh! Leave me alone! Please don't kill me!"

Lithuania jumped at least three feet backwards in shock. "Estonia?!"

The bespectacled Baltic had been cowering behind the curtain, shaking uncontrollably. Lithuania approached him slowly, his hands held up in what he assumed was a comforting manner. "Um... Are you alright?" he asked. "Where's Latvia and Poland?"

The only he reply he received was a lot of teeth-chattering. Estonia had obviously seen something extremely frightening if it could force him to tremble worse than Latvia usually did in front of Russia, which he rarely did because he always slipped out of their former master's gaze so quickly.

Lithuania wrung his hands together, slightly frustrated at his fellow Baltic's lack of cooperation. "Um... Would you like a drink to calm yourself down?"

More teeth chattering.

"Silence means consent, I guess. I'll be right back."

* * *

As with many of the locks and doorknobs Lithuania had already seen, the tap in the kitchen on the first floor refused to work.

"Why am I not surprised?" he asked himself, hitting the tap and twisting the top a few times for good measure. "I'll have to look somewhere else, then."

He explored deeper into the first floor and came across some more interesting places. A locked door occupied a wall in the back of the kitchen. There was a huge, Japanese style room, where he found some assorted weapons (what weapons were doing in an abandoned house was completely unknown to him) he promptly stole in case the creature appeared again, with yet another locked door leading down the right-hand side of the hallway. The hallway also held a toilet he hadn't noticed when he saw the Thing moving past.

The tiny lavatory was spotless. Even the toilet bowl showed no sign of use at all. Lithuania gazed tentatively at the sparkling water in its bowels, tapping unconsciously on a glass he had liberated from the kitchen earlier.

"Well, this is water too..." he sighed, before face-palming in self-irritation. "Don't be stupid! There's a sink in here. Maybe I'll try that instead."

He tried the sink's tap doubtfully. It turned easily, causing a transparent liquid to flow out in a steady gush.

"Ah, this one seems to work," he muttered, filling his glass up with the liquid, "I wonder if this is really water, though."

* * *

When he returned to Estonia's room, the poor guy was still shivering. He studied his glass of 'water' skeptically. Should he give Estonia the water? It wasn't even filtered. There might be - he shuddered at the thought - all sorts of poisons in it.

"Then again, there's isn't any other source of water in this house," he sighed. "Oh well, if I have to... Here, I brought you some water. At least, I think it's water."

He handed his glass to Estonia, who quickly downed it in one gulp. Luckily for both of them, he quickly stopped shaking.

"Lithuania, are you sure this is... water?" Estonia questioned rather skeptically, staring at the few remaining drops of liquid in the glass.

Said Baltic shrugged. "I can only say 'Probably'..."

"It's good enough for me." Estonia set the glass down.

Lithuania sighed in relief. " Thank goodness. So, um... Are Poland and Latvia with you?"

Estonia's face fell. "Oh, them... No."

"Really? Why?" Lithuania was a little disappointed.

Estonia looked away, a little shamefaced. "We ran into... some kind of monster... It chased us down the hallway... we had to split up and..."

"Estonia, pull yourself together," Lithuania cut in. "I have no idea what you're talking about if you keep stammering. This isn't like you at all!"

"I'm sorry." Estonia buried his face in his hands. "Could you go and look for them? I don't want to leave this place behind."

"Ugh," Lithuania groaned. "Fine, I'll search for them. But just in case..." He sifted through the weapons he found in the Japanese room and handed Estonia a wicked-looking hunting knife. "In case that 'monster' you mentioned comes back."

Estonia nodded stiffly, accepting the weapon. "Oh, I almost forgot!" He pulled a shiny object out of his trouser. "I found this when I came in here. Maybe you could figure out what it's for."

He handed what looked like a silver key to Lithuania.

"I will," Lithuania promised, slipping the key into his pocket. He browsed through his weapon stash and chose a decent-looking sword. "I'll leave the rest of the weapons with you, Estonia."

"Alright. Watch out for the monster," Estonia warned as Lithuania left the room.

* * *

Lithuania strolled along the second-floor corridor, testing the key on every locked door he came across with no results. He decided to try the doors on the first floor. "I wonder if the monster they saw was the same one I saw earlier," he muttered to himself as he descended down the staircase.

The hallways on the first floor were as deserted as ever. He strode over to the front door and stuck the key in its keyhole.

Nothing. Oh well.

He headed in the direction of the kitchen. There were two locked doors if he went that way- the key might be able to unlock one of them.

* * *

**Another short chapter again, _anteeksi_! I haven't made much progress with the story, after all.**

**Iceland: You might have made better progress if you weren't so busy playing all those other HetaGames.  
**

**I know... Anyway, see you next chapter, readers! Hyvää Joulua!  
**


	3. Danishes and Demonic Hands

**So Iceland. How's the highway construction coming along?**

**Iceland: Well, it was going fine until this bunch of elf-lovers- Wait. I know where you're going with this.**

**Elf-lovers? Are you saying you... believe in elves?**

**Iceland: I- No I don't! They were just worried about the environment!**

**_Right_. Anyway... Moi, readers! Here's the next chapter! Iceland, if you will read the reviews. Unless the elves have already stolen them.**

**Iceland: Stop mocking me about the elves, that's so childish of you... You have two reviews this time. To AmericanFairy, we do have an ending. Of sorts. It will take some time to get there and it definitely isn't pretty, but there's one. To TotallyRandomAuthor, it's true that the monster will appear in this chapter AND you will get to see Lithuania in action. And yes, this story follows the HetaOni plot quite closely so one of us will be going through multiple time loops. We replaced characters based on ability and process of elimination so feel free to make wild guesses.  
**

**True that. We'll also be replacing several iconic objects in HetaOni as well. For example, the Onigiri Japan found has to go so let's see what it has been swapped out for in this chapter!**

* * *

Lithuania stopped at the first door- the locked one he had come across on the way to the kitchen. A faint scrabbling noise issued from the crack under it. The key seemed to grow heavier in his shirt pocket.

"I think it's this one!" he decided, slotting it into the door's keyhole. He twisted it and the lock clicked softly. Rejoicing a little with this small victory, he placed one hand on the doorknob, about to turn it.

"Watch out for the monster," Estonia's reminder rang in his mind. He had mentioned that the creature had chased them down the hallway. What if... what if it was still roaming around on the first floor? Lithuania could almost imagine its presence directly behind him, breathing heavily down his neck. It took him a while to convince himself that there was nothing there, nothing stalking him in the shadows. Monster or no, he drew his borrowed sword anyway. Vigilance never killed anyone.

Withdrawing the key back into his pocket, he turned the doorknob and the door swung open. Stepping through, he found himself inside a vast library. A dozen shelves, each lined with books in various languages, were arranged in two neat rows in the centre. A large table occupied the space in front of the shelves, its varnished wooden top partially hidden under a cluttered heap of open books, newspapers and scrap paper.

A blast of cold wind blew in through the door and it slammed shut with a loud bang. _That's alright,_ Lithuania reasoned, patting his shirt pocket,_ I have the key._

He strode over to the table and rifled through the pile on top of it. The books were old-fashioned and the newspapers were so ancient they crumbled in his hands. It didn't make sense. The house was _immaculate_; why was this table so cluttered?

Unless... it had something to hide.

Using his free hand (he was still holding his unsheathed sword), he carefully stacked the books and papers in the largest available empty space on the table. After a while, a fist-sized object wrapped in white paper fell out of a particularly thick stack of newspapers.

"What's this?" He snatched the thing up excitedly, slowly peeling its outer covering away.

It was a danish. A piping hot chocolate-chip danish.

What in the name of sanity was a _danish_ doing underneath a pile of old papers? Lithuania stared rather disappointedly at the palm-sized pastry, trying to answer that question. _Well, at least I won't go hungry for the next two hours or so,_ he thought, wrapping it up again and stashing it away in a separate shirt pocket.

There was a scuffling noise.

He froze. Did something fall off the table?

Quick check. No.

Another noise, directly behind him.

Followed by the sound of something breathing heavily.

He blindly swung his sword backwards. Please don't hit anything, he begged silently.

The blade lodged inside something. Something soft that definitely wasn't a brick wall.

He ran.

The Thing screeched in pain, clawing at the gaping wound and the sword in its side. Lithuania made for the door at a speed that would have made Italy proud, only to find it locked tight. As the Thing closed in on him he frantically searched his pockets.

One chocolate-chip danish, period.

For one desperate moment he wondered how well a chocolate-chip adapted-from-Austria pastry* would work as a skeleton key. _No, that won't work. I need to find that key!_

The Thing was less than a metre away, his sword still stuck in its side.

There really was no other way out of that, then. _If you want a Battle of Grunwald*, creature, you've got it._

Breaking into a run for the second time in five minutes, Lithuania zipped past the Thing, snatching his sword out of its side as he passed it. He ran for his life, ignoring its screeches of pain, and managed to take cover behind one of the bookshelves.

Once again, he searched his pockets. The key hadn't magically appeared in his shirt pocket.

_Great._

The Thing turned around.

_Oh, God._

A bookshelf on the opposite side of the room came crashing down.

_What should I do?_

The table did a three-sixty.

_I need to find that key._

Papers floated everywhere.

_No, that Thing will never let me get to it._

Two more bookshelves were crushed.

_I have to kill it._

The moment Lithuania made that decision, his bookshelf disappeared as the Thing tossed it away. "NOW!" he yelled, swinging his sword forwards. There was a swish as the blade cleanly severed the creature's head and two hands off. Its body fell to the ground with a sickening, squishy noise and blood squirted all over the floor.

"Dear God, what have I done..." Lithuania stared down at his bloodstained blade. He had just killed something. He had KILLED. Sure, the Thing wanted his life too, but it could have been in self-defence... What if it had children or something...

Then the two severed hands leapt up and grabbed his right leg.

"Mano Dievas*!" he cried out in surprise, tearing the demonic appendages off him. They fell off and skittered about on the floor like wind-up teeth. The severed head followed suit, somehow bouncing up and attempting to bite his head off.

The Thing had resurrecting body parts. What the hell.

Lithuania took off before the jiggling things could catch up with him again. He still hadn't found the key and with all those papers lying around he'd probably never find it-

What was that shiny object over there?

He made a dash for the object and grabbed it. It was the key! He took one look at the mutilated Thing and decided that this was his only chance at escape.

"FOR GRUNWALD!" he yelled for no apparent reason and charged towards the door. Jamming the key into the keyhole, he collapsed through the doorway and into the empty hallway. Almost immediately he jumped up and slammed the door behind him.

Finally, when his breath had slowed down to a normal rate, he let out a relieved sigh.

_I made it._

* * *

**Iceland: What on Earth did I just narrate?**

**What on Earth did I just write? My first battle scene, of course. I don't have any experience writing a battle scene so I had to study a lot and figure out some sort of format.**

**Iceland: If you consider running around a lot a battle scene at all. Besides, what part of you wanted to write the living hands into the story? That was just a joke!**

**But jiggly living hands are funny!**

**Iceland: You know what, you make no sense at all sometimes.**

**I know that! Anyway, the next chapter's going to take a while because school starts again next week. Until then, stay tuned! Happy New Year!**

**Iceland: Hamingjusamur Nýtt Ár!**

* * *

***adapted-from-Austria pastry- Danishes weren't exactly Danish to begin with. When Austrian bakers had to move to Denmark to look for work (for some reason, at the same time Danish bakers went on strike), they brought their cooking style with them. The Danish bakers liked a certain pastry they made and adapted it into our modern danish, which goes on to become world-famous as Denmark's signature pastry. In other words, Denmark stole Austria's recipe and became famous for it...**

***Battle of Grunwald- If you read Himaruya's non-linear comic "Polish-Swedish wars" you'll understand that this was a major battle with Poland and Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights/Prussia. Lithuania appeared to retreat halfway, allowing Prussia to overpower Poland. He was about to win the war when Lithuania returned and basically backstabbed him.**

***Mano Dievas- Lithuanian for My God**


	4. Finding Friends

**Hola, readers! I hope you're faring well in 2014. Iceland, here's the book.**

**Iceland: Right. You received another two reviews. To The Secret Trio, thank you for reviewing. It means a lot to us. Take your time guessing which one of us replaces Italy, but I'd point out that the main characters listed in the story summary is a giveaway. To AmericanFairy, neither one of us is allowed to reveal who replaces who until the time is right- in other words, the chapter after the one in which "Prussia" disappears- but I can tell you that your speculation does make sense. Denmark tends to be the first guy to go missing sometimes...  
**

**Okay, on with the story. We've got a lot of ground to cover for the HetaOni second chapter. Two battle scenes to deal with, whew!  
**

* * *

Lithuania sat outside the door for an age, trying to listen for the Thing in case it could somehow open doors with severed hands. He'd eventually have to get rid of it if he wanted to get everyone out of this house, provided they hadn't already been killed. _No, you can't think like that, Lithuania! They're still alive and you know it!_

Estonia's key fell out of his pocket. He glared it for a moment. "It's all your fault," he scolded the tiny metal object. "You had to lead me to the one room with the Thing. You just had to."

The key said nothing. Of course, if it had answered back he would get a much bigger shock than the Thing gave him if that weren't obvious.

He just sat there, listening to the storm outside. What should he do now? The library had led him into a dead end. The only other unlocked room was the one where he found Estonia and that hadn't yielded anything useful either.

That left... the Thing.

He stuck Estonia's key back into its original pocket._ I have to kill it once and for all_, he remembered, bracing himself as he reopened the library door.

The Thing had disappeared. Without a trace. Even its bloodstains had seemingly evaporated.

"What the hell? Where did it go?" He sighed, sheathing his sword. Deciding to continue his search through the library, he walked towards the nearest bookshelf that hadn't been pushed over. "To think I put so much effort into mutilating that Thing only to have it escape, that sneaky monster..."

There was a soft _klink_ under his foot. He lifted it to find another key.

"What's this?" He picked it up and studied it. It was made of rusty iron and marked with '4F'. "There are more floors in this house? How did I miss them? Oh well... at least this library wasn't that useless after all."

* * *

A very tired Baltic was spread-eagled on the top of the stairs on the fourth floor.

"I... hate... staircases," Lithuania gasped, lying on the floor without a care in the world. He took out his danish, ate half of it and rested for exactly three seconds before he remembered that Estonia couldn't wait forever before he began screaming his name.

There were two doors on the fourth floor, one to the left of the stairs and one on the right. The new key didn't even fit into the lock of the left door so he took a right.

"Yes! It opened!" he cheered up a little, pushing the door. It swung inwards into another room which appeared larger than the bedrooms he had seen on the second floor. A curtain similar to the one he had seen in Estonia's room hung in a corner. The adjacent corner was occupied by a lone bookshelf. In between the two objects was a rather familiar-looking wooden chair with red velvet cushions.

Lithuania was disappointed. He had climbed all the way up there, only to find this huge, mostly empty room. _Well, at least there's a bookshelf I can search in here._

He strode past the curtain and chair, eyeing the latter and wondering where he had seen it before.

"Alright, bookshelf." He chose a single volume from the shelf and flicked through it. "Tell me all of your-"

There was a rustle.

_Oh no, not again._

It came from behind the bookshelf.

_Okay, I'll just put this book back and-_

**SQUEAK!**

Lithuania let loose a high-pitched scream and scrambled away from the bookshelf. What on Earth was that?!_ At least it's not the Thing,_ he told himself, _It probably can't kill you._

The creature behind the bookshelf started making weird, squishy noises. "It's stuck," he realised. "Maybe I should try to save it..."

Grabbing hold on one side of the shelf, he began pulling it away from the corner. The heavy bulk resisted for a moment before slowly sliding inch by inch towards him. Whatever was behind it before was squealing in delight.

"Right, now let's see what we have here..." He let go of the shelf and returned to the corner. There was a hole in the wall and it was occupied by something. A large, violet-eyed, squishy something.

"It's a mochi!" Lithuania poked the creature. "Oh, you're wearing a tiny beret. How cute! Are you stuck?"

The mochi wriggled around inside the hole. When it failed to dislodge itself, it began to cry.

"Don't cry," Lithuania told it, "I'll get you out of there."

He took hold of its soft, flexible body and tugged. Whatever the poor thing had done to get itself stuck in that hole had really trapped it deep inside. He'd probably need help to get it out.

"I know! Estonia owns a few mochis as pets," he recalled. "He should know how to rescue this one! I'll ask him to help out." He turned to the mochi and patted it fondly. "Don't worry, my friend knows all about weird creatures like you. I'll be back soon!"

* * *

**A short and uninteresting chapter! Lithuania has also found the HetaOni NB8 mochi!**

**Iceland: Bonus points if you can guess which mochi we swapped it out for. Estonia objected a little to us shoving one of his pets into a hole in a wall and we had to promise we'd return it in one piece.  
**

**It's fine, I don't eat mochis. Anyway, announcement time! I will be occupied this whole week by level camp (we're going to the zoo, yay) so the next chapter might take a little longer to be updated. Until then, stay tuned!**

**Iceland: Remember to leave a review before you go.**

**That too.  
**


	5. Battle in a Bathroom

**Moi, everybody! I'm back from school camp!  
**

**Iceland: And your point is...?**

**That I can update again! :D**

**Iceland: Right... On with the reviews. To those who tried guessing who the mochi is, I can tell you that one of you are correct. I have only one hint for you: The mochi's nationality is the same as the country who is replacing America. Also, NYC prefers to follow the manga version's colour palettes because some countries change eye colour too much in the anime.  
To TotallyRandomAuthor, I'm glad you liked the last two chapters. This is our first time writing with a battle scene so the best we could do was badly mutilate the Thing. As for the mochi, well... let's just hope the happy ending extends to animated rice-cake creatures.**

**And with that, let us commence narration of the fifth chapter!**

* * *

"What the-"

There was an iron door standing exactly where the curtain Estonia had been hiding behind was. Lithuania rapped on the metal. "I wonder where he got this..."

"H-hello?" Estonia's shaking voice sounded from behind the metal door.

"Estonia, it's just _me_." Lithuania attempted to open the iron door but it wouldn't budge. "That key you gave me opens the library door on the second floor, where I found a key for a room on the fourth floor-"

"There's a fourth floor?"

"Yes, and I found a mochi stuck in the wall there so I was wondering if you could help me rescue it."

"A mochi?! Well... I'd love to, but I'm so hungry..."

Lithuania remembered the danish he had found in the library. "Um, I have half a fresh chocolate-chip danish with me. It's not very much but would you like to have it?"

Estonia made an indiscernible mumbling noise which he took for "yes". He slipped the rest of the danish under the surprisingly large gap under the iron door.

"Aitäh... but I don't think this is enough." Estonia sighed. "You tried your best, but I guess I'm staying here."

Lithuania wasn't convinced. "What?! I thought you like mochis! You talk about them all the time!"

He heard a few strange beeping sounds from under the door, followed by Estonia's failed attempt to curse softly about bad Internet connection. "Well... um... I'm trying to get a signal in here so we can call someone outside or something."

"You're trying to get a signal on your phone behind a thick iron door," Lithuania pointed out incredulously, "I'm not the technology expert you are, Estonia, but I'm pretty sure that's not how you find a better signal-"

"I have my ways, okay? Besides, you haven't found Latvia and Poland yet, have you?"

Lithuania shrunk back. It was true; he still hadn't spotted any sign of the two missing nations. _The mochi can wait, I guess,_ he decided,_ I need to find them first._

He sighed. "Alright. I'll see if I can find them. If I find any one, will you agree to help the mochi?"

A few more beeps, followed by the sound of a buzzer and a period of silence which must have been Estonia quietly flying into a rage over his nonexistent cellphone signal.

"I guess that's only fair," he gave in. "I'll see the mochi, right after I try connecting this thing to the World Wide Web a few more times... Oh, wait! I thought you might need this."

A small, labelled green bottle rolled out from under the door. Lithuania picked it up and read the label.

"Sa...ma...ne... Samane?" Lithuania stared at the bottle of, well, Lithuanian vodka. "How did you get this stuff in this place, much less behind that door?"

"Don't ask me." Estonia might have shrugged. "I found several bottles of it in the back, along with a box of plain, unbaked danishes."

Danishes and samane. Oh, joy. "I'll take the drink, thank you," Lithuania concluded, leaving the bedroom once again.

* * *

Lithuania was halfway down the second-floor corridor when he realised he'd hit another dead end.

If his memory wasn't failing him, the only unlocked rooms in the house right up to that point were Estonia's room, the first-floor library and that large room in the fourth floor which he decided was an attic. Oh well, since Estonia was still hungry and probably can't eat unbaked danishes, he might as well search around for some food too.

However, the first-floor kitchen seemed to dislike him very much. Aside the broken tap, he found most of the cupboards locked (why someone would want to lock a kitchen cupboard was beyond him) and whatever wasn't sealed tight was empty except for a few cobwebs and dust bunnies. There wasn't any key either, unless he was to pry open those rebelling cupboard doors and search behind them. He wasn't too keen on breaking his only weapon that way, so he had no choice but to search the other side of the first floor.

* * *

That door. That one he first saw the Thing disappear into.

It was wide open.

But the Thing was in the library, right? It couldn't be in there. It just couldn't. Then again, it was supposed to be in that dark room in the first place. Furthermore, the door could be open because... someone was hiding in there.

Lithuania squinted, trying to see through the darkness that cloaked the room's contents. There was only pitch black inside, but he could make out the silhouette of something. Something big.

_That can't be good,_ he thought, drawing his sword, _but I have to find Poland and Latvia!_

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the room, allowing darkness to engulf him. The room door swung shut behind him, shutting out whatever light he had from the hallway.

_My God, it's dark in here... Is there a light switch?_

He hugged the wall, fumbling over it for a light switch and trying not to stab himself with his sword. The room was tiny and there wasn't much wall to feel over, so he quickly located a flip switch next to what he assumed must have been a mirror.

_There it is!_ He sighed in relief, flipping it on. A bright white light instantly flooded the room, illuminating its other occupant.

"You again!" Lithuania gasped, dodging to his left as the Thing, whole and unhurt, lunged towards him. It crashed into the mirror, shattering the smooth glass.

_Seven years of bad luck for you, Thing._

The creature stood up, blood gushing from the ragged gash on its forehead. Ignoring the wound, it bared its teeth and attacked. He raised his sword and swung, effectively adding a deep cut onto its injuries, but it didn't seem affected by his blade at all.

_No good, I can't injure it badly enough from the outside..._

A shard of broken mirror clinked under his foot.

_I've got it!_

He bent down and scooped the shard up. Turning back to the Thing, he waited for it to attack again.

_Closer... a little closer..._

When it opened its mouth to bite him, he hurled the mirror shard down its throat. It gagged for a moment, trying to cough up the offending object as it pierced its apparently soft insides. _Now's my chance!_ Lithuania thought, stabbing it in what looked like its chest. He didn't even have time to feel disgusted by the resulting squelching sound.

The Thing screeched in pain, swatting at the blade protruding out of its chest. It loped towards the light switch and slapped a withered claw on it, plunging the room into darkness once more. The sudden loss of sight shook Lithuania hard, causing him to lose focus.

_It turned off the light! Is it going to..._

Silence presided for a few seconds. He stood up, found the light switch and flipped it back on.

The Thing had disappeared again, taking its blood with it. In its place was a small golden key.

"A key!" He darted forwards and picked it up. It was labelled 'Bedroom'. "A new lead! That's good."

For the first time, he surveyed his surroundings. He was in a bathroom. Whoever built it apparently liked the colour white a lot, as the bathtub, toilet bowl and sink were all a pristine white. There was an empty circular space over the sink, which must have been where the mirror had been.

"Right." He slid the new Bedroom key into the pocket which held the library key. "Let's find out what this 'bedroom' has to offer."

* * *

**Another fight scene! This was really hard to write, considering how confined the space is in a bathroom. Who picks a fight in a bathroom, anyway?**

**Iceland: That is beyond me.**

**Anyway, huzzah! I managed to write a slightly longer chapter today. Also, Lithuania is going to the bedroom! You know what that means~  
**

**Iceland: It's just the Prussia event. Nothing to get excited about...  
**

**But that means whoever is replacing ze awesome Prussia will be revealed! I bet it'll be really, like, totally fabulous!  
**

**Iceland: You're blatantly giving hints away, aren't you.**

**Shh. Stay tuned, readers!**

**Iceland: Don't forget to leave reviews before you go.**


	6. A Tie-dyed Handbag

**Ahh, procrastination. It sucks.**

**Iceland: I don't get you.**

**It's keeping me from writing enough this week! This world needs less distraction and Maths homework. -.- Anyway, welcome back to HetaOni NB8! Iceland, reviews please.**

**Iceland: We have three reviews from our two very loyal readers. **  
**To The Secret Trio, I'm glad you still like the story. Recollections are quite hard to put into words.**  
**To TotallyRandomAuthor, I'm rather surprised you found Estonia funny. When Lithuania told us about that part all I could think of was how annoying Estonia would have been if I was there... As for the wifi, Finland says he has his own secret emergency network but I'm not so sure.  
To AmericanFairy, I can only say... Probably. Not in the near future, but probably.  
**

**It'll be so cool if Estonia did have one~ He did create Skype after all so who says that's impossible? Anyway, let's get on with the story. I bet everyone wants to see what happened to the Prussia Event!**

* * *

Three unsuccessful attempts on the second floor later, Lithuania finally found a door where the bedroom key fitted. Hopefully, the bedroom wouldn't lead into another dead end. Taking the key out behind him, he entered the room.

A tiny voice in the back of his head told him to lock the door. He agreed with it, twisting the key in its lock with a satisfying click.

The room wasn't very impressive. All it had was a polished wooden floor, a few half-empty bookshelves, a large table and two small beds sandwiching an even smaller table. Just like the rest of the house so far, the place was immaculate. Apparently, the Thing took up cleaning the house as a hobby in between trying to kill him.

Speaking of things...

Something moved in between the beds.

A sliver of gold hovered in the narrow space in front of the bedside table. Curious, Lithuania crept over to the beds to check it out.

"H-hello?"

"WAAAAAH! GO AWAY!"

A tie-dyed handbag, sorry, man satchel flew in his face. He dropped his sword and caught it just as a person sprang out of the tiny space, screaming his head off.

"I'm, like, totally too young to die! Leave me alone!"

Lithuania tossed the bag aside. "Poland?"

The screeching Polish instantly shut up. "Liet?"

"Poland! What on Earth are you doing in h-"

"LIET!" Poland attacked his friend with a tackle hug. "There was, like, this totally scary monster! It was so ugly and unfabulous and grey-"

"Poland... you're... choking... me..." Lithuania gagged.

"Oh." Poland dropped him on the floor like a sack of flour. "You, like, believe me, right?"

Lithuania stopped to catch his breath. "Taip, I saw it too..."

"It was HUUUUUUUUUGE!" Poland waved his arms around dramatically. "After you sorta left us for dead ("I'm pretty sure that's not what happened," Lithuania muttered indignantly), this ugly thing came out of like nowhere and attacked us!" He made a weird, strangled roaring sound and stomped around the bedroom. "We kind of split up and I, like, somehow ended up in this totally unfabulous room. It needs more pink in it-"

"POLAND." Lithuania interrupted his overly dramatic recollection-cum-rant. "Have you seen Latvia?"

"That guy? I, um... haven't."

Latvia was still missing in action. Lithuania tensed. The little guy was the weakest one among the three Baltics; he wouldn't stand a chance against the Thing. If he ran into it-

"Hey, Liet."

"What?"

"Something's, like, coming!"

"What?!"

The moment they stopped talking altogether, they heard it.

_Boom._

Gradually, the footsteps in the corridor grew louder, subtly shaking the bedroom._ Boom. Boom. Boom._

"Liet, I'm scared..." Poland buried his face in Lithuania's back, who promptly drew his sword.

The footsteps stopped outside the door.

_Clack._

Poland squealed in terror.

_Clackclackclackclack._

"Oh-my-God-please-like-go-away-and-like-leave-us-alone-right-now-"

"Shut up!"

Finally, silence. Lithuania waited for a few more moments, glad that he had locked the door. Heaven only knew what might have happened if he didn't.

"Is it gone?" Poland whispered, peeking out from behind his friend's back.

Lithuania gave him an irritated look. "Po, get off my back!" he said, brushing Poland's hands off his shoulders. Carefully placing his sword on the floor, he tiptoed to the door and tried to listen for the slightest noise on the other side. He was rewarded by silence.

"I think it's gone," he sighed. "I _think_."

Poland brushed imaginary dust off his clothes and snatched up his handb- er, man satchel. "Okay, that was, like, totally scary, but can we go now? I don't like this boring room..."

"Yes Poland, we may leave now." Lithuania returned his sword to his hand. "But I say we should be careful. That Thing might still be roaming around this floor. I've already found Estonia; he's safely hidden behind some iron door in another room. I've left him some weapons I stole downstairs and we'll see if we can get you something better than that... handbag."

"But I like my bag." Poland pouted.

"Poland, you can't use a handbag to fight the Thing! Oh, what am I thinking... Let's just go already."

"Yes~" Poland dashed over to the door. "Let's, like, get out of here and-"

* * *

The Thing was waiting outside.

Poland screamed, instinctively swinging his bag forward. It smacked the Thing in the face, causing it to stumble backwards. "GO AWAY!" he screeched, repeatedly whacking it with his handbag **(A.N. I'm just going to call it a handbag now)**.

"Poland!" Lithuania cried out. Armed with the obviously better weapon, he stabbed the Thing's vast forehead, forcing it to recoil, before pulling Poland to one side. "What do you thing you're doing?!" he questioned, "I told you the bag won't do anything!"

"Liet, it totally did," Poland shook his handbag, "Like, it's sorta like a mace with no stick attached!" To prove his point, he swung the bag and hit the Thing in the face a few more times, yelling, "Die!" every time he made contact.

"Poland! This isn't the time for fighting!" Lithuania pointed out, pushing his friend away while the Thing was still dazed from the sudden Handbag Assault. "We've got to get out of here right now!"

Poland took one look at the Thing, which was glaring at him with evil- no, menacing jet-back eyes.

"I totally agree with you," he decided, tightening his grip on his handbag as the two turned tail and sped down the corridor.

* * *

"Here!" Lithuania panted, throwing Estonia's room door open. Somehow or other, they had ended up outside that particular room and it was pretty much a take-it-or-die situation anyway. Both nations bolted inside and slammed the door shut.

From behind the curtain- no wait, it was an iron door now- Lithuania could hear a yelp of surprise.

"W-who's... t-there?" Estonia's frightened voice trembled harder than it should be able to.

"Estonia!" Lithuania walked over to the door. "It's Lithuania. I found Poland!"

"Like, hello." Poland waved, not bothering with the fact that an iron door wasn't transparent. "Nice door."

Estonia sounded like he was choking on something for a moment. "What?! You found someone?"

"Taip, do you have a problem with that?" Lithuania hammered once on the metal with his fist. "Estonia, we agreed that you'd come out and help that mochi in the attic if I found either Poland or Latvia-"

"And I'm, like, right here," Poland interrupted.

"Poland! Anyway, I've found one of them so will you please come out now?"

Estonia sighed. "Fine. I'll come out. I'm about done in here anyway."

There was a sound of metal scraping against metal before the iron door swung open. The bespectacled Baltic stepped out, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light of the larger room.

"Now," he said, a hint of excitement in his voice, "take me to the mochi."

* * *

**Iceland: ...was the Heroes of Olympus reference necessary?**

**What? Tied-dyed man satchels are cool. :I **

**Iceland: And the third fight scene?**

**How does one have a fight scene armed with a handbag?**

**Iceland: I don't understand you at all...**

**You're not even trying. Poland was unarmed and I had to give him something! Anywho, that's all we have for now! See you next chapter!**

**Iceland: Don't forget to leave a review.**


	7. Baltics Assemble!

**Iceland: Iceland the narrator-cum-review reader here. NYC is unable to appear in the Author's note because she, um... she read Gutters. ****I have never seen her so depressed before; she's usually almost like Norway when she reads tragedy. Poker-faced. Not like I care anyway... so I brought our proofreader to start the chapter off**** instead****.**

**Finland: Moi, readers! I heard you liked our story so far. Kiitos! Proofreading is quite hard when there are so many single-line paragraphs. Anyway, welcome back to HetaOni NB8! Iceland, you have the reviews, right?**

**Iceland: Já. *reads reviews* Apparently, everyone loved the idea of Poland's handbag. Who would have guessed.**

**Finland: I know you wanted to take that out because it sounded ridiculous, but I thought the readers would like it!  
**

**Iceland: And they sure as hell do...**

**Finland: Let's not keep them waiting then. Start the chapter!**

**Iceland: Allt í lagi...**

* * *

"So cute!" Estonia almost squealed, cuddling the mochi.

"Yeah, I know," Lithuania smiled, then became serious. "Can you get it out, Estonia?"

Estonia adjusted his glasses. "This one seems like it is easily startled... I'll do my best."

The trio had headed directly up to the attic, after hurriedly arming Poland with a spear from Lithuania's stash. Estonia had practically disappeared up two flights of stairs. Apparently, he loved mochi more than he let on.

"Tere!" he greeted the mochi, smiling widely. "I'm here to help you out of there. Hold still, okay?"

The mochi appeared to nod as it only had one big head and no visible body (come to think of it, how does one nod if they're just a head?). Estonia eased his fingers into the hole around it, struggling to grip on its squishy body. When he had found purchase on the smooth surface, he started pulling.

The mochi didn't budge.

"I think it's, like, stuck pretty deep," Poland remarked.

"I can see that," Estonia muttered, trying to squash the mochi into a different shape so that it didn't take up so much space in the hole, "It's rather tensed up. I don't remember this species being this tough before."

Lithuania bounced a random question off him. "For the record, what species is it?"

"From the violet eyes and white beret, I'd say Finnish." Estonia stopped pulling and squashing for a moment to rest. "Finnish mochi are supposed to be extremely squishy, second only to Italian and... what's that country again... ah, Canadian mochi. I think this one was scared by something and now it's all tensed up."

"Poor guy," Lithuania mused. "Do you think you'll be able to save it eventually, Estonia?"

Estonia grabbed the mochi once more. "I think so... but I may need something to help me get it out. Maybe a tool would help..."

"A tool... Well, this is a big house," Lithuania pointed out. "I've searched the whole first floor and found nothing, but maybe there's something I can find for you on this floor."

"Aitäh, that would really help," Estonia agreed.

"Liet!" Poland cut in. "Can I, like, come with you?"

"Um, no. Poland, could you stay and help me with the mochi?" Estonia shot down that notion, "Two brains are better than one. Besides, Lithuania seems to know this house better than we do. Let's leave him to it himself."

Poland made a (fabulous) face. "Aww, really? Fine."

The mochi squeaked, demanding Estonia's attention. "Okay, I get it. I'll get you out of there eventually," he told the creature. "Be careful, Lithuania!"

* * *

Lithuania tried the other door on the fourth floor. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked. He had no idea why he had missed this door earlier- maybe he had been expecting locked doors too much.

The new room was built like a bedroom-cum-lounge. Two beds lay on one side of the room. Three white sofas surrounded a small coffee table in the centre. A wardrobe occupied a nearby corner. The only thing out of place was a large blue lever in the wall and a plaque stuck next to it. Ignoring the uncharacteristically white furniture, he examined the lever and the plaque.

_Up is Heaven._

_Middle is Earth._

_Down is Hell._

_It had to refer to the lever,_ Lithuania guessed,_ It must be a clue about where I should move the lever._

"Let's see... Heaven sounds good, but... It sounds like a trap. It might refer to the floors of the house. There isn't anything above the attic, so pulling the lever up can't lead to anything good. Earth doesn't sound like it'll do anything so... Hell? There is a first floor after all..."

Deciding on his course of action, he pushed the lever all the way down. After a moment, there was a grinding sound behind him. He turned and found out that one of the beds had shifted to one side, revealing a hole in the floor.

"For once, Hell is the best choice," he remarked, hurrying over to the opening. "I wonder where this goes... I guess I'll have to find out myself."

He threw his sword down and waited. Two seconds later, it landed with a clatter on some wooden surface.

"Not too much of a fall," he decided. "I'm going down."

* * *

Two seconds later, he landed on top of something that definitely wasn't the floor. Unless the floor could sound like a piano being thrown from ten storeys and smashed on the ground. To be frank, he _did_ land on a piano. A pure white grand piano which had miraculously survived a hit from a rather tall guy falling on it from above.

"Eh, what's this?" Lithuania flipped himself over to look at the polished ivory surface. What was a piano doing in this place in the middle of nowhere? Surely the Thing didn't have a passion for music, did it?

Well, now wasn't the time to worry about the monster. He was looking for a tool for Estonia, wasn't he?

Before he could get off the piano though, a scrap of paper drifted down from the hole in the ceiling. He snatched it out of the air. It was plain with two rectangles drawn on it; one was green and one was blue. It appeared to be a clue of some kind since half of it was ripped off, so he slipped it into his pocket with the plate shards and room keys. Grabbing his sword, he rolled off the piano.

The door to this "piano room" was locked but could be opened from the inside, so he unlocked the room and stepped out onto the third floor. He hadn't stopped to search that floor earlier. Now that he was there, he might as well look around for a bit.

Other than the Piano Room, there were two doors on the opposite side of the third floor, separated by the staircase between them. Both were made from the same type of wood. Lithuania decided to try the door to his left.

It opened into another blindingly white room. However, this one looked more like a white version of the library downstairs. Rows of white bookshelves lines with white books were arranged in neat rows on the white floor. He chose a book and flicked through its blank white pages. _Who would want to fill a room with empty books,_ he mused.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of bright red.

"What was that?" he wondered, replacing the book on its shelf. He cautiously headed towards whatever he had seen. "That can't be the Thing, it isn't bright red-"

"LITHUANIA!" a very familiar voice cried out of nowhere, followed by a red and gold blur tackling him to the floor.

Lithuania was stunned for a moment. "WHAT ARE YOU- Latvia?"

"You're alive!" the petite Baltic nation exclaimed. "I was so scared that the monster would kill you!"

"Latvia!" Lithuania couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief. He hugged Latvia tightly. "I finally found you... You have no idea how worried I got over you. How did you get in here?"

"Well, um... After you left, a monster attacked us." Latvia recalled. "Could you let go of me?"

Lithuania released his grip.

"When it attacked us," Latvia continued, "I heard Estonia scream, then we ran off in different directions. I ran and ran until I eventually found this place- Hey, have you found the others yet?"

Lithuania nodded an affirmative. "Yes. They're trying to save a mochi upstairs. Come on, they have to know you're safe!"

Latvia smiled. "Okay, I'm coming!"

* * *

**Iceland: ...Latvia has appeared.  
**

**Finland: Of course he would eventually! He was in the mansion with all of us back then.**

**Iceland: Finland, he appears in that chapter which would have been titled "The Allies" in the original.**

**Finland: ...oh.**

**Iceland: Anyway, readers, I hope you liked this chapter. NYC finished writing it less than twenty-four hours after she posted chapter six, so I hope it is not too badly written. Oh, right. Leave a review before you go.**


	8. Oh no, not POLAND!

**Iceland: NYC! Hurry up, the deadline's coming.**

**I'mwritingI'mwritingI'mwriting! *hit save button* Done!**

**Finland: Should I-**

**No time for proofreading, Fin. We're on a schedule here. Besides, with what's been happening these days I can't afford to let this chapter wait.**

**Iceland: Really.**

**Ice, I fell down the stairs.**

**Iceland: Fine.**

**Anyway, welcome back to HetaOni NB8! Without further ado, let us begin Chapter Eight!**

* * *

Lithuania was about to open the attic door when he heard yelling.

"What's wrong?" Latvia asked.

"Shh." Lithuania pressed his head against the door, trying to listen to whatever was happening on the other side. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good.

"Lithuania?"

"Latvia, do you have anything you can defend yourself with?"

"I have this really thick book."

"...Alright... I am opening this door on three. No matter what happens, don't be surprised."

"Okay."

Lithuania drew his sword. "Alright. One... two... three!"

With a small war cry he shoved open the door and they both rushed in, prepared for anything they might be faced with inside. Or so they thought.

They had walked straight into the weirdest fight scene in modern history.

Poland had apparently forgotten he was carrying a spear around and was once again repeatedly slapping the Thing in the face with his handbag while Estonia crouched in a corner, pointing his knife as far as he dared at it, apparently too frightened to do anything useful.

"What the... how did it get in here?!" Lithuania exclaimed in disbelief.

Hearing his friend's voice Poland glanced quickly in Lithuania's direction before once again devoting all his attention to pimp slapping the Thing with a man bag.

"Liet! You're, like, totally late! But I can so handle this. Grab Latvia and Estonia and run!"

"Poland don't be stupid! There's no way you can take on the Thing by yourself! And would you please use that spear I gave you instead of your handbag?"

"Shut up and, like, get out of here already!" was the response followed by more swings of the man bag.

Lithuania looked over at the smallest Baltic and noted the calm and determined look on his face. Latvia turned to him and nodded in understanding.

"Sorry Po. I refuse to lose any of my friends."

And with that Lithuania rushed to Poland's side to help with the fight; Latvia right behind him.

"You're, like, so unfabulously stubborn Lithuania."

"I know. And you can keep telling me that later after we kill this monster."

Latvia glanced back at the bespectacled Baltic with concern.

"Estonia! Snap out of it!"

Just then the monster lashed out at Latvia who barely managed to dodge the attack with a small scream.

The scream seemed to wake up Estonia from his state of static panic. Seeing that his friends were in danger something inside the quiet Baltic snapped.

With a small snarl he hurled his dagger at the head of the Thing. It was a lucky shot hitting the Thing right in the forehead.

The monster roared with a combination of rage and pain before fading away.

* * *

"Latviaaaaaa!" Estonia cried, hugging the petite Baltic tightly.

"The hell, Liet!" Poland yelled at Lithuania. "I told you to, like, run!"

"Well, if you were forced to use the handbag it couldn't have been good, right?" Lithuania pointed out.

Poland couldn't answer.

Estonia let go of Latvia. "The important thing is that we're all safe," he stated, picking up his dagger. "Whatever that Thing was... we can only hope it doesn't come back."

_It probably will_, Lithuania thought,_ considering what I've been seeing._ "That's good and all, Estonia... but what are we going to do now?"

"Um..." Estonia scanned the attic. "The storm doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon, so I guess we have to stay the night here."

There was an awkward silence.

"The question is where, isn't it."

"Jah."

Lithuania attempted to recall some good places that they could sleep in and was safe from the Thing and realised there weren't any.

Latvia spoke up. "We won't need much to sleep over here. Maybe we could just find an empty room and sleep in it?"

That certainly increased Lithuania's options. "Well, the room opposite this one has two beds. There's that hole in the floor and a weird lever though. The third floor only has a library and a piano room. Most of the room on the second floor are locked and those that aren't don't have any beds-"

"Wait. Hold up." Poland cut in, "A weird lever? Did you, like, try pulling it?"

"I did, and that hole in the floor I mentioned opened up."

"That's, like, so cool! It's totally like in the movies!" Poland raced over the the attic door. "Where is it? I want to see if it's true!"

Estonia and Latvia gave Lithuania "is he always like this" looks. He simply shrugged.

"It's next door, Poland, like I said earlier," he said, following the unnecessarily excited Polish man.

* * *

"That's it?"

"Taip."

"But that's boring!"

"I know."

The four nations crowded around the unmarked lever in the room. Poland was rather disappointed by how plain it looked; Lithuania had no idea what he was expecting but judging by how he emphasized the word "weird", it must have been nothing short of "like, totally awesome."

"Well, at least we know it does something," Estonia noted. "It opens up a hole in the floor, right?"

Lithuania nodded an affirmative.

"Let's try it then. Which way did you pull it?"

"Down, I think..."

Estonia studied the lever. "It's already moved to the bottom. I'll reset it."

"Estonia, wait-" Latvia began.

Too late. Estonia had pulled the lever up... and stopped in the middle.

"Yes, Latvia?" he asked.

Latvia looked away. "Nothing."

"Good. Now where was I?" Estonia turned back to the lever. "Ah, yes. Downwards-"

There was a clatter.

"What was that?"

"Hold on, I'll go." Lithuania straightened up and left the group. He scanned the floor and found a shiny metal object that definitely wasn't there before.

"It's a key! Hey, I found a key!"

"What? Where?" Poland and Latvia yelled simultaneously.

Lithuania held it up. "It's marked '2F'. I think it unlocks one of the rooms on the second floor."

"Let's find that room then!" Poland decided, abandoning the lever.

"Wait! I just remembered something," Latvia interrupted. "Can I go back into the attic for a while?"

"Go ahead," Lithuania nodded.

Latvia dashed out of the bedroom-cum-lounge, returning soon after with a wooden box.

"We can go now!" he chirped.

Estonia had decided to abandon the lever too. "What's that box for, Latvia?"

"Oh, I don't know." Latvia shrugged. He shook the box, which rattled its contents around. "I noticed it earlier and thought it might come in useful sometime."

"Alright then."

* * *

Lithuania wondered if it was just their luck because they were sticking together, because the first locked door they tried the key on yielded immediately. He hadn't been expecting the key to work, so he fell inwards the moment the door swung open.

"Whoa!" he cried out, steadying himself by placing a hand on the nearest possible wall. He quickly scanned the room. "All clear, everybody."

The remaining Baltics and Poland entered the room, fanning out to search around. Sadly, there was only one bed, but it did have several bookshelves ("Why would this house need so many bookshelves?" Lithuania mused.), a chest of drawers and a large table.

"I found a box of matches!" Latvia called from under the table, showing the others a small cardboard box.

"There's a first-aid kit in here too," Estonia added, peering inside one of the drawers. He extracted a pristine white plastic box out of it. "This looks like a nice place to stay, but... are we going to share that bed?"

Everyone glanced at the bed and agreed to keep looking.

* * *

It took a few tries to realise that the key unlocked all the doors on the second floor. By the time they did, there was only one door left. As they have not found a suitable room yet (Poland point-blank refused to use the room Lithuania found him in because it didn't have enough pink), they decided to try their luck.

"I wonder what's inside this one," Lithuania wondered aloud.

"Ooh, maybe it'll, like, have those totally huge beds we were looking for," Poland guessed.

"Or, it could be just like every other room on this floor," Estonia sighed.

"Don't be depressing, Estonia," Lithuania said, unlocking the door.

This room was different. It was more spacious compared to the other rooms. The wall opposite the door had an unlit fireplace. Another large table and chairs occupied the centre of the room and, mercifully enough, two equally large beds took up one side.

"Yes!" Poland flung himself onto the beds.

Latvia set his box on the table and ran over to the fireplace. "There's some firewood in here!" he reported, "we could light a fire in here with these matches."

Estonia placed his first-aid kit next to Latvia's box. "Here, I'll do it," he offered, joining Latvia at the fireplace. They quickly started a warm fire with a couple of matches.

Lithuania surveyed the scene, a smile forming on his face. With the fire sending golden light through the bedroom, he was already beginning to feel safer, a feeling he thought he'd never get in the mansion. He closed the door behind him, locking it as an afterthought.

Poland rolled off the bed and dragged a chair in front of the fire. "Wow, that's totes awesome. We've, like, actually got a fire going."

"Taip, I feel better now that we have some light," Lithuania agreed, settling in another chair. "and that I'm not alone anymore."

"Look, I brought some of those unbaked danishes," Estonia said, placing some dough-like things in front of the fire, "I think we can bake these and eat them before we go to bed."

"Speaking of going to bed," Latvia joined in the conversation, "what time is it? My watch broke when I wasn't looking."

There was a wave of realisation as everyone else pulled out their mobile phones and rolled up their sleeves to check their wristwatches.

"My watch is broken too," Lithuania frowned, tapping his watch's face.

"My phone won't display the time of the day," Estonia added.

"My phone is, like, broken!" Poland wailed.

"Poland, that's because it was in your bag when you smacked the Thing with it," Estonia pointed out.

Lithuania shrugged. "We have worse things to worry about. For example, we need to get out of this place. The front door is locked. Does anyone have any other ideas?"

"Oh! We should totally bust through the windows!" Poland suggested.

"There are bars on the windows." Latvia promptly shot down the absurd idea. "I checked."

"Since when were there bars on the windows?" Lithuania questioned.

"I don't know, they just appeared there."

"Maybe we can dig our way out," Estonia proposed.

"We don't have any digging tools," Lithuania sighed. "We have weapons though, so that might work if we're willing to sacrifice them."

There was a moment of silence as everyone racked their brains for an escape plan.

"I give up," Latvia pushed away from the table in frustration. "The front door is locked, right? Then it should have a key. We'll just find this key and get out of here!"

"Latvia, that's probably the single most useful piece of information we have now," Lithuania remarked, "but until then, I guess all we can do is keep looking. In the meantime... Estonia, are the danishes done?"

Estonia scurried over to the fire. "Whoa, this fire baked them pretty quickly. Here, take one each."

He passed the danishes around. When they were finished off, he stood up again and walked over to the beds.

"Plenty of room for all four of us," he noted, "We'll be able to sleep together very comfortably."

"Then let's go to sleep!" Poland cheered.

"Wait," Latvia cut in. "Is it safe for all four of us to sleep at the same time? What if that Thing comes here?"

Lithuania considered the statement. "That is a valid question... we need someone to stay awake to stand guard over us."

"So, um... who's going to keep watch?" Latvia wondered.

Everyone stared at each other.

"Nope," they all said simultaneously.

Lithuania sighed. "Someone has to stay up to keep watch... I know of a game from America's which they use to decide on people. It's called Rock Paper Scissors. We'll play to decide who becomes the guard. Is everyone okay with that?"

Nods of agreement.

"Alright, here we go. Rock, Paper, Scissors..."

* * *

A very sulky Poland sat in a chair by the fireplace, his spear at his side, glaring at the locked door while the Baltics slept peacefully on the beds.

"I'm bored," he muttered, "My phone is kinda broken and they, like, won't wake up to replace me."

He gazed in the direction of the beds. "Well, their sleeping faces are totally weird." He giggled. "It would be totes awesome if I could take a picture of them and, like, use it for blackmail or something..."

He shivered. "Wow, it's getting sorta cold in here."

The fire was blazing in the fireplace.

"But how? The fire is pretty strong..."

A chill ran down his spine.

"What the hell? I feel like something bad is going to happen-"

The doorknob rattled.

"Ahh!" Poland squealed, grabbing his spear. "Look, whoever you are, this isn't, like, funny! Stop that!"

The doorknob didn't stop rattling.

"LITHUANIA! The doorknob is rattling!"

No reply.

The doorknob stopped moving, then rattled even harder.

"Fine! If none of you are, like, waking up after all that noise, I'm gonna go out myself!" he declared, moving towards the door. He put one hand on the quivering doorknob.

"I hope it's not the Thing," he muttered, opening the door...

* * *

**BAM. Cliffhanger.**

**Iceland: Well, that took an unnecessarily long time to write.**

**Finland: Kyllä, is a chapter supposed to be this long?**

**Meh, I just felt like writing double-length to make it up for updating off schedule.**

**Iceland: I just realised this chapter is indeed twice the length of the other chapters...**

**Besides, I wanted to squeeze in whatever was left of the Baltics' parts so that I could move on to the next part.**

**Iceland: What do you mean by- Oh, I see.**

**Finland: That's where we come in, right?**

**Yes, that's it. Oh, by the way, I want to say kiitos to AmericanFairy for helping me out with writing the battle scene for this chapter. It was perfect! I wasn't able to continue the story without it.**

**Iceland: ...is that all you have to say?**

**Yes.**

**Iceland: Well, in that case-**

**Finland: Leave a review before you go!**


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